When you grow up in Louisiana, Texas and Oklahoma, it's pretty near impossible to sound like anything except a Southern gal. I love the blues, but every time I sing 'em, I end up doing country-blues. I'm even a TRAINED singer and thespian, for heaven's sake, and aced all my diction classes in college. But as soon as I start relaxing or get excited, I get sooo down home.

I can just see me heading off into an Irish song and meandering into South-speak about halfway through. It'd be a little sad -- as Alison mentioned about people starting a song in Irish, wandering into Scots and ending up in Belgian or something by song's end. Only do what you can actually pull off -- and rely on someone else's opinion on whether or not you're doing so. We're all multi-linguals in our own heads!

ww